I’m in the middle of working on my comic for the Ann Arbor Paper right now, but I wanted to drop by and mention a little something that I heard tonight from a fellow who has intimate knowledge of the Ann Arbor garbage scene. According to my contact, since the city changed over to an automatic garbage collection system, which requires only one man per truck, instead of two, and means that no one sees the garbage as it’s lifted up and dumped into the truck, a lot more hazardous waste is finding its way into our landfills. I don’t get the sense that there’s quantifiable evidence yet, but the general consensus seems to be that people, knowing their garbage isn’t being looked at any longer, are taking the opportunity to dump milk jugs full of used motor oil, car batteries, cans of paint and the like… Sounds like something that the local press might want to look into, doesn’t it?
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How much do you want to bet that, in the long run, once remediation is factored in, it would have been less expensive to keep two men per truck?
“…milk jugs full of used motor oil.”
what the hell? do people really do that?
if they fill their milk jugs full of used motor oil… where do they keep their glass marbles, soda can tabs and pennies?
Same place as I keep my tobacco juice — Maxwell House coffee cans.
Isn’t that why they build oil-removal drains built into the curb every few feet?
Streams are like the kidneys of the earth. They were made to clean out the toxins. I dump absolutely everything into the stream behind my house – oil, bloody rags, the occasional animal carcass. No matter what I pour in, it’s gone in a few days, like magic.
I have a magic hole in my back yard for medical waste.